Pigeon Army
Posts: 14611
Joined: 29/1/2006
From: Pixar HQ, George Lucas' Office.
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I'll also be doing a list for shorts, as Gimli did last year.
3. Dog Day Afternoon (1975, Lumet) - 4/5
It drags a bit in places, but Lumet's comedy-drama-heist film hybrid boasts great, realistic performances from all players and some excellent direction. The ending is absolutely fantastic too - that final half hour ramps up the tension and keeps you gripped like nothing else.
5. Robocop (1987, Verhoeven) - 4/5
Intelligent, witty, scathing, over-the-top, Verhoeven's dystopian action extravaganza not only boasts fine action setpieces and some clever dialogue ("Attempted murder? It's not like he killed someone!"), but also tears shreads out of big corporations, privatisation of public services, and the consumerism and materialism of today's society. It's a thoughtful actioner, a rare breed these days, and despite moments of cheesiness, Verhoeven nails it.
7. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003, Norrington) - 1.5/5**
I don't know why I keep giving this a chance. Execrable CGI, terrible dialogue, heavy-handed symbolism, a terrible ending, the American, shocking direction, lacklustre acting, a seeming inability to choose between being tongue-in-cheek and being dark and edgy; LXG just represents everything so very wrong with the studio system and the star system today (so much was changed because studio execs didn't think the audiences would understand it, and Quatermain's character got watered down at Connery's insistence). It gets 1.5 stars because of some neat fight scenes (mainly involving Nemo), some committed acting by a couple of actors (the guy who played Nemo, Tony Curran), and that one brilliant shot that shows the three bombs on the Nautilus before they blow up.
Shorts
1. Rejected (2001, Hertzfeldt) - 4.5/5*
A surreal, wacked-out, utterly hilarious, ever-so-slightly heartbreaking look at one animator's creative breakdown through the medium of the ads the Family Learning Channel and Johnson and Mills commissioned him to make. The little vignettes are brilliant (highlights being "Silly Hats Only", the one where Poopsy takes his first steps, and "MAH SPOON IS TOO BIG!") , and they all culminate in a furious and nightmarish apocalyptic breakdown of the animation.
2. Billy's Balloon (1998, Hertzfeldt) - 4/5
Billy has a red balloon and a rattle. The red balloon doesn't like Billy rattling the rattle, and so decides to teach him a lesson. A brutal lesson. This animation is hilarious in an unashamedly morbid kind of way, but Hertzfeldt's trademark animation and the utter hilarity of the whole procedure more than make up for the guilt you'll feel laughing at it.
3. Ah, L'Amour (1995, Hertzfeldt) - 4/5
Don Hertzfeldt explores male and female relationships, and particulary male rejection, in an...interesting metaphor. Our hero asks girls out, but gets stabbed, decapitated, burned alive and other such pleasantries for his efforts. As a cynical look at male-female relationships (our hero succeeds because of one little, wholly shallow word), it works, though not amazingly. As a brutally hilarious animation, it scores top points.
4. Genre (1996, Hertzfeldt) - 3.5/5
The animator (photos in stop-motion - a clever move) draws a rabbit and puts it through hell because it won't co-operate, dragging it through such diverse genres as romance, sci-fi, the buddy film and the porno, usually one right after the other, with disastrous results for our little bunny. It's a hilarious short, but lacks substance, and it sort of loses its way at the end as the animator begins making up genres.
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ORIGINAL: Rinc
She's supposed to be 13! I'd want her to be very attractive though
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ORIGINAL: Pigeon Army
Stop being mean to Deviation
No.
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